


Two Men & A Baby: Go to the Circus

by GachMoBrea



Series: The Unexpected Series [5]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: A night out with Dads, Circus, Cotton Candy, Elephants, Fluff, Gen, Goes with the Series, OOC, Out of Character, Wentworth is the bravest baby I know, dinner together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 22:51:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6539731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry, Len, and Wentworth go to the circus!<br/>Short but, hopefully, sweet!<br/>For "Dorea" because exams are awful!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Men & A Baby: Go to the Circus

Barry waits outside the Circus entrance for Len and Wentworth. There were butterflies dancing in his stomach that he couldn't quite shake. Why was he so nervous?  
"Evening, Barry," Len says, carrying their son. Worthy is in his new shoes, and has an elephant t-shirt on.  
Barry almost jumped, too focused on his excitement to notice the other two were so close. He smiles at the young boy's shirt.  
"Nice taste in apparel," he points to it. Len smirks, glancing around the crowd.  
"Are we going to stand out here all day," Len drawls, "Or are we going to go in?"  
"In, in, yes definitely in," Barry stutters, forcing his nerves to get a grip and motioning for Len to follow.  
They walk through the outer tents, Len occasionally covering Worthy's eyes when there's something especially scary. There aren't too many clowns, which is a relief, not that Barry is afraid of them. He's just glad there's of less risk of trauma to his son.  
"Why didn't Lisa come?" he asks Len, glad the baby-crazed Snart sibling was giving them space, but curious all the same.  
"Couldn't you tell?" Len teases, "My dear sister is petrified of clowns."  
"Really?" Barry laughs a little, "I thought you Snart's weren't afraid of anything."  
"We're all human," Len shrugs, covering Worthy's eyes as a clown in a rainbow wig passes them.  
"It's a common enough fear," Barry concedes, moving toward the animal section. He really did think Worthy would like to see an elephant.  
"And what are you afraid of, Scarlet?" Len asks as they get closer, a look of mischief in his eyes, "Not that I'll use it against you now that we're a team and all."  
"Yeah," Barry scoffs, "Like I'd believe that for a second."  
They're in luck, there's a mother and baby elephant in the pen outside the main circus tent. Wentworth instantly calls out to them as he tries to reach. Len adjusts his grip a little to accommodate the squirming.  
"You son'na like'da ela'phants?" the trainer smiles at them. Worthy giggles, still reaching his arms toward the massive animal.  
The trainer makes a few commands to the baby elephant, gently tapping it with the stick in his hands, until it's close enough to touch. Len leans Worthy over the metal fence enough for him to touch the top of the elephant's head. He squeals with delight.  
"He is'sa fearless!" the trainer laughs, "Maybe he can'na join da circus when he'sa big!"  
"I don't think so," Len smirks at the trainer, pulling his son back into his arms and away from the animal. He thanks the other man before heading into the main tent.  
"Wouldn't it be just our luck if Wentworth ran away to join the circus?" Barry laughs, looking at the picture on his phone of their son as he touched the animal.  
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Len voice is serious as he uses a wipe to clean Worthy's hands. He's clearly not amused by the thought, so Barry decides to change subjects.  
"Why don't you pick our seats while I get some cotton candy?" he offers, putting his phone away. Len nods, looking at the rows of benches, no doubt calculating the best vantage point.

Barry doesn't use his enhanced speed, there are too many people here and the sawdust on the ground would be a dead giveaway. He finds a petite, blonde vender and gets one pink and one blue cone of the sugary stuff.  
The speedster finds his party sitting on the end of the middle row of benches. Wentworth is dancing next to Len as his Dad holds his hands and helps him keep his balance. When Barry gest closer, the little boy looks to him and smiles.  
"Glad to see me?" Barry asks, sitting on the other side of Worthy. His son instantly grabs at the blue cotton candy.  
Len chuckles, "I think it has more to do with what's in your hand."  
Wentworth is trying to eat the colored confection through it's plastic cover while it's still in Barry's hand. His face scrunches up in confusion.  
"Here, let me," Barry gently gets the drooly plastic out of the boy's mouth and removes it. He pulls off a small piece and hands it over.  
It sticks to his son's hand like glue and Worthy wastes no time putting it in his mouth. His eyes go comically wide and he reaches for more before he's even finished what's in his hand.  
"Settle down, partner," Barry smiles, "You're not getting a lot of this."  
"Didn't know you were capable of being the bad Dad," Len sounds far too pleased with the idea, "Teasing the poor boy with such a thing then promising to take it away already."  
"It's not like I 'wanted' to tease him," Barry's hackles rise, instantly on the defensive, "Too much sugar, especially too soon in small children, can cause a cold, cough, allergies, croup, acid reflux, weakened immunity and a poor diet."  
"Thank you, baby encyclopedia," Len rolls his eyes, grabbing another piece of the blue confection to give to their son, "A little goes a long way and it's not like I wanted Wentworth to be running around all night anyway."  
Barry relaxes, realizing the other man was just pushing his buttons like usual. He really should try discerning the tones of the other man's voice.  
Barry eats the whole pink one by himself while Len "helps" Worthy finish the blue. Their son doesn't look too happy when the sweets are gone, but then the lights are moving and the ring leader is calling their attention. The show is about to start.

It is exciting and there's too much going on for even Barry to catch everything.  
They start off with a clown routine and Len doesn't bother covering Wentworth's eyes since they're pretty far away. They come running out of their small car and dance around the main ring while the trapeze artists climb up the poles to the top.  
They wave and honk to their fellow performers when they reach the top, making their exit while falling over each other. Wentworth waves to them as they go.  
When the trapeze artists start flying and flipping in mid air Wentworth goes incredibly still. Barry looks at the little boy, amazed at his intuition towards danger. Len tightens his hold on their son ever so slightly, silently reassuring him. It makes that ludicrous blush spread on Barry's face.  
The performers finish without incident, bowing and waving to the crowd before making their way back down the large poles. Worthy claps furiously along with the crowd.  
The clown are out again, this time trying to imitate the tutu wearing dancers in the smaller, outer rings. They fail miserably, of course and end up chasing the women away in time for the tiger trainer to arrive with a flash of fire.  
Barry keeps one eye on the tiger performance and one eye on his son. Wentworth looks confused at first, looking at the man swinging his whip with a similar expression Len has when figuring out a problem.  
When the lion roared, teeth bared to the trainer, instead of getting scared, the little boy looked angry. His little hands turned to fists, as if ready to take off and defend the trainer from the vicious animal.  
Barry had never seen anything quite so amazing in his life.  
Len catches his eye and smiles at his reaction to the boy in his arms.  
The lion goes through it's tricks and Worthy remains poised to attack, fists still clenched at his side. When the trainer finishes with the animal going through three consecutive flaming hoops, the crowd cheers. The trainer bows, the animal moves back to it's cage and Worthy's fists release.  
There's a strange giant Slinky routine next and Barry wondered who's idea that was. It looked out of place but most of the crowd laughed. Wentworth looked bored and Barry had to agree with him. He was ready for the next act.  
A magician did a few tricks next, then the parade came. Len stood with the crowd and Barry followed suit. They cheered for the performers and Worthy even clapped for the giant Slinkys. 

They waited for the crowd to move ahead of them so they wouldn't be pushed or shoved. Len lead the way out when it was clearer and Barry followed him passed the, now mostly closed, outer tents and to the clearer air outside of the circus area.  
"That was exciting," Len commented as they walked side by side away from the big tent. Wentworth was kicking his legs, wanting to walk but Len wasn't about to let him down so late at night.  
"Did you see the way Wentworth looked during the tiger performance?" Barry didn't bother keeping the admiration for his son out of his voice, "If he was any bigger I'd be scared of him running up to the big cat and defending the trainer!"  
"I told you he was a brave boy," Len smirked, changing his hold on the kicking boy so that he faced forward and kicked air.  
Barry's stomach growled. He had forgotten to eat dinner and the cotton candy wasn't cutting it. He looked around for a place he could get something to eat.  
"There's a deli a few blocks ahead," Len offered, clearly having heard the other's stomach, "They make a decent Italian sub."  
"What about you?" Barry asks, because it would be impolite to ask.  
"We could eat," Len shrugs like he doesn't care either way, "Wentworth should have something more substantial than sugar in his stomach before bed."  
"Great," Barry smiles, letting the other man lead the way again.  
Len takes them to a corner store deli with signs covering most of the window space. There's a large man behind the counter sorting wrapped sandwiches behind the glass display. He looks up to them as they enter, a small bell on the door warning him of their presence. He looks at Wentworth and waves. The little boy waves back.  
"I take it you go here a lot," Barry whispers, not trying to appear rude to the man behind the counter.  
"Even criminals have to eat, Barry," Len whispers back, smirking at the shocked expression he gets from the sentence. "Or ex-criminals, in my case," he amends before the other can start complaining.  
"Snart!" the man behind the counter cheers at them, arms open wide, "You so busy lately you can't come over anymore?"  
"I can't eat here every day, Don," Len chides in a friendly manner "You'd have me weighing more than you in a week."  
Barry didn't know he could sound so friendly with others, having only ever heard the familiar tone directed at his family and Team Flash before. The man was full of surprises.  
"True," Don laughs, nodding his head, "What will you and your friend be having tonight?"  
"Two Italian subs and some turkey slices for Wentworth, if you will," Len sits the little boy on the counter next to the register so he can clean his hands again.  
"When are you gonna let the tyke eat my Mom's lasagna?" Don asks as he slices a few pieces of the meat, "She's still offended you wouldn't let her feed him."  
"You're mother uses peanut oil in her recipe," Len sounds like he's had this conversation a hundred times before, he probably has, "I want to wait until he's 18 months before introducing the dangerous nut."  
"You're a dangerous nut," Don counters, putting the slices on a disposable plate.  
"A study was completed in 2008 that pointed to the fact that waiting too long to introduce peanut butter to a child may make the child more likely to develop an allergy to the food," the info comes out of Barry's mouth with his permission.  
Don looks extremely pleased, while Len just glares at him.  
"Thanks, Barry," Len is still glaring, "But I don't think it'll hurt anyone if we wait four more months."  
"Right, of course," Barry rubs the back of his head nervously, "The Mayo Clinic suggest that parents introduce this food at home, anyway, and that they have an oral antihistamine handy in case of any reaction. Non-drowsy Benadryl is recommended by pediatricians as a medication that should always be kept handy when introducing new foods to babies and toddlers."  
"Wow," Don whistles, "He's like a baby help book."  
"Tell me about it," Len groans, taking the plate from the other man and walking over to one of the small tables. Barry grabs the sandwiches and pays for the meal. Len had said there weren't any allergy problems, so Barry hadn't thought about the other man not wanting to introduce peanuts.  
As they eat Len's glare lessens. The worry brought on by the glare goes away with it and Barry can relax again. Despite the sugar from earlier, Wentworth starts to doze off as he eats. It's amusing to watch the little boy try to eat, half a piece of turkey in his mouth as his eyes slowly close. Worthy jerks himself awake when they manage to go all the way down and starts munching again.  
Len takes the piece hanging out of their son's mouth and encourages him to chew what's left in inside. Wentworth does and moments after he swallows, his eyes close again and he's fast asleep.  
"Poor guy," Barry whispers, gathering the trash to throw away.  
The two men walk out of the deli, Barry waving to Don as the bell chimes.

They walk side by side again, Wentworth snuggled in Len's arms as they move. Barry doesn't really know where they're going, enjoying the companionship while letting the other guide the way. Eventually, Len reaches a corner and turns to Barry.  
"I think this is where we part," he drawls quietly.  
Barry looks around and realizes where they are. His house is a few blocks ahead and one of the places he knew Len lived at was a few streets to the left.  
"Do you want me to follow you home?" Barry offers, his cheeks burning a little at how that made it sound like they were ending a date, "I mean, just in case. It's kinda late."  
Len smirks, "I think I can handle it, Barry."  
The ex-crook turns and strides down the sidewalk towards home. Barry watches him leave, tempted to follow after anyway to make sure they get there safely. He's being ridiculous though, right? Len was a grown man, he could take care of himself. Even with a one year on in his arms...Right?  
Worry and temptation win out and Barry flashes after them, keeping himself hidden in alleyways and shadows. There's a moment where two teenagers in hoodies approach from the opposite direction and Barry tenses, ready to flash over if they end up being a threat, but they merely walk passed Len and Worthy without sparing them a glance.  
Barry lets out a breath.  
The two make it home without a problem. Barry was being a worrywart over nothing. He smiles as they make it through the door and gives himself a second to enjoy the feeling of them being safe.  
Barry walks home with a smile covering his face.

**Author's Note:**

> The elephant trainer is supposed to read like he has an accent. So, the spelling errors are on purpose. =)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the show, nor the characters.


End file.
